Rating: 
Summary: Flawed but fascinating
Review: Really this gets 3.5 stars, a compromise between its shortcomings and its strengths. I round up because it's extremely readable and informative and its flaws don't detract from these qualities. Basically what we have here is a critical (but far from apologetic) look back on the Sixties student movement from someone who was on the inside. There are fairly perceptive glances here and there to other aspects of the era's counterculture and political movement but the outlook is basically limited to that of the SDS "Old Guard" (the student activists eager to proclaim radical politics since the Kennedy era, when said politics were still unfashionable).
Though this group was to be at the center of the late sixties rebellion, the title is a bit deceiving--this isn't an overview of the decade, per se but rather the decade as Todd Gitlin saw if from his perch in SDS. That's part of the problem with the book, because Gitlin veers back and forth between historical recollection/analysis and personal memories without really choosing which he wants to develop--and both suffer as a result (the memoir aspect most of all). We get only a vague idea of what his role in all of this was and throughout much of the book he seems more like an observor than an active participant. But then that seems to be true of the New Left as a whole. They were vainly (in both senses of the word) talking sense to power in the early years, unable to connect with the counterculture of mid-decade, and then dissolving into squabbling factions hedonistically pursuing revolution by '69. I for one got the sense that the SDS' power was greatly exaggerated, both by itself and by the opposition. SDS seems to have been the proverbial tail that thinks it's wagging the dog, as Gitlin comes close to pointing out a few times. His memories add to the sense that he, and the old SDSers, spent most of the decade either cheerleading or wringing their hands at the various actors on the political stage, from SNCC to the Black Panthers, the Diggers to the Yippies, the more radical students to the eventually psychotic Weather Underground, often ignoring the more mainstream peace movement to the liberal politicians who were the actual movers and shakers. Perhaps Gitlin gives himself and SDS short shrift by focusing on all the different movements and trends sweeping the 60's, but if so I would've liked to see a book recounting HIS experiences of the 60's.
Then again, maybe it's just one of those "contradictions" he speaks of late in the book. His memories, like being aided by Democratic delegates in the middle of the Chicago confrontation-or of a bunch of uptight student radicals being confronted by the charismatic revolutionary Diggers) add color to the recounted political theater of the times and ultimately, both are just as indispensible as they are problematic. Ultimately, I have to recommend this book because of its coherent analysis of different 60's factions that too often get clumped together (many times have I heard Bernardine Dohrn's Charles Manson comments held up as if they were representative of the entire student Left). Be aware that the book is not a comprehensive overview of those years, it very much takes the "Old Guard" (i.e., involved since the early 60's) radical student view of things, and rarely if ever questions the premise of the radical movement (hence latter-day conservatives and neocons will find much to disagree with). Nonetheless, it's quite a text--nah, screw the academic jargon, it's a good story, and it's worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: in lieu of history, a personal view of the 60s
Review: This is one of the better books available on the 1960s and what they meant. Gitlin, formerly high in the SDS organization, was an actor as the drama unfolded. The sections related to his memories are exceptional, as are certain portions in subjects such as the black panthers. Unfortunately, his assessment as a whole was a bit thin for me, kind of like an appetizer rather than the decisive feast I had hoped for. Maybe, because the 1960s are still at the center of the US political debate whether we admit it or not, it is too early to tell all the stories together, definitively, as has been done of the 1950s by Halberstam. Because I remember most of the events he treats, I was hoping for a more comprehensive treatment of them so that I could put my feelings in perspective. As a liberal, Gitlin's views are clear. While I am more conservative than he, I empathise with where he was coming from. For me, as a high school student, the 60s were the ideal carnival: why not ditch school to protest war? I feared being drafted, escaped it by a nose when the war ended, and wanted to relive this from a different pint of view. It wasn't available in this book. Recommended, but not great.
Rating:
Summary: in lieu of history, a personal view of the 60s
Review: This is one of the better books available on the 1960s and what they meant. Gitlin, formerly high in the SDS organization, was an actor as the drama unfolded. The sections related to his memories are exceptional, as are certain portions in subjects such as the black panthers. Unfortunately, his assessment as a whole was a bit thin for me, kind of like an appetizer rather than the decisive feast I had hoped for. Maybe, because the 1960s are still at the center of the US political debate whether we admit it or not, it is too early to tell all the stories together, definitively, as has been done of the 1950s by Halberstam. Because I remember most of the events he treats, I was hoping for a more comprehensive treatment of them so that I could put my feelings in perspective. As a liberal, Gitlin's views are clear. While I am more conservative than he, I empathise with where he was coming from. For me, as a high school student, the 60s were the ideal carnival: why not ditch school to protest war? I feared being drafted, escaped it by a nose when the war ended, and wanted to relive this from a different pint of view. It wasn't available in this book. Recommended, but not great.
Rating: 
Summary: Peter Pan remembers it as the best of times....
Review: Todd Gitlin shows he's lost none of the exuberance of youth and gained none of the wisdom that usually comes with age (and/or a career in academia) in this one. About as intellectually rigorous as the 60's phrase "Oh, wow, hea-vy, man!", this book becomes somewhat disturbing as the knowledgeable reader becomes increasingly aware of its shortcomings in dealing with some of the outright criminal activities of the more violent politicos and certain outlaw "allies" such as the Black Panthers street gang. Too bad. Some of us Berserkly types learned a lot from the movement, including the important reasons for its failure. Gitlin appears to have learned nothing --- or perhaps the comparison should be to leftists of the 30's whose first loyalty was always to "the line" no matter what experience might say
Rating: 
Summary: Gitlin's account is outstanding
Review: While clearly seated in a european-intellectual tradition -- i.e. para-Marxism/Postmodenism -- Gitlin's account of the events and people of the path that took the Christain/liberal movements of the late 1950s/early 1960s towards the chaos and violence of 1968 and the early 1970s is breath-taking and powerful.
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